A Heart So Far Away
by Porahgon-X
Summary: The Caitlin Trilogy p2.  Second Part of the Caitlin Trilogy.  No need to read p1 right now, but p3 will connect both parts so please bear that in mind. Also no need for summaries, just that it'll be a long story ;D Advanceshipping AshxMay AAMayL Satosh
1. Victorious…Sort Of

A gigantic cloud of dust from a recent explosion rocked the stadium in Olivine City. There was a rumbling of great magnitude that was heard and felt for miles around. A fast wind rocketed from the source of the explosion in the center of a battlefield. Two trainers felt the wind blow across their faces with the gritty sand threatening to scratch their faces and they had no choice but to shield their eyes as the sound and wind roared past them, lifting their respective clothes, jackets, suits, dresses, and hats with it. And veils too.

One specific veil covered the top of the head of a young girl. It was ancient looking and was a light, faded purple color that flowed all the way down the length of her back. A yellow ring held it together with a real emerald in the front of the ring that wrapped itself around the girl's forehead, and was clasped shut in the back. It still left the girl's long locks and bangs reach out and her glowing sapphire eyes were clearly visible. Her skin was a faint tan that looked as smooth and beautiful as a supermodel's. She had a small ruby necklace that matched her clasp ring that surrounded her neck. She had on a separate top that was colored salmon with a yellow border just hugging around her chest such that it revealed as much skin as possible without being suggestive and keeping her appearance humble. She had a long flowing skirt that started the same salmon color at the top, but turned into a translucent white after about two inches and reached all the way down to her sandals that were styled much the same way as the rest of her outfit. She looked like an ancient Egyptian pharaoh's wife as they called it on some distant, similar planet.

When the wind cleared the two stared hopefully with their mouths slightly open at the scoreboard. On it were two faces in circles. Underneath in circles there are four faces of Pokemon, two for each trainer. However two of the faces were dimmed and grayed out. The two circles with the trainers' faces on them had a yellow bar circumscribing the faces. The yellow bar was almost completely depleted on both sides, and each trainer stared nervously at their respective bar for a brief second.

Then they looked down at their Pokemon that were facing off against each other. It was a standoff to the finish. First Pokemon down is a rotten Exeggcute.

And so a heaving Skitty with its four short legs shaking uncontrollably and a panting Roserade only standing on one knee stared off at each other with a determined look in their eyes. They glared at each other for the longest time. Both had sustained major injuries in their fight and had major scratches and bruises all over their bodies.

When it was clear that nothing was happening anytime soon, they felt an inner surge and began to move forward, almost daring the other not to fall.

Time was ticking down. It was clear both Pokemon were exhausted beyond the capacity to use a move. They should both be down and in a double knockout, but they have been bred to have a special grit. One was a rosey Pokemon trained by brute stubbornness, the other a cute kitten trained by excessive caring.

All five judges stared at the Pokemon intently, waiting to see when a Pokemon was truly down for the count.

So the Pokemon started to walk to each other. One step at a time.

One.

Two.

Three. –breathe-

Four.

Five.

Six. –breathe-

Such was the cycle. Then the pink Skitty pulled out an unexpected move. It breathed in a great big gulp of air and let out a burst of pure snow and cold air for a brief second. The short wind buffeted the Roserade, stunning it into standing up straight and its eyes were wide open in shock at the Blizzard that Skitty shouldn't have been able to use. So Roserade just stood there.

After a while Skitty looked hopelessly at what appeared to have been a waste of energy, so it started to collapse. It fell down, no longer standing on any foot and started to give up hope. The kitten just wanted to get to the Pokemon Center as soon as possible.

Then when it was about to let itself go unconscious, the judges rang their buzzers that caused red Xs to flash on their podiums. Skitty couldn't help but think that they had simply buzzed Skitty as downed, so it let itself fall unconscious with a feeling of regret and pain, thinking it had failed its trainer in this tough moment.

Unbeknownst to her, the Xs were saying Roserade had already fainted in its standing position.

And so a girl with chestnut-brown hair sporting beautiful yet sporty locks and sapphire eyes as blue as the sea just stood there, gawking at the scene.

Then she started to smile.

Then she started to laugh.

Then she exclaimed with great joy. "ALRIGHT!"

She ran forward and gave her Skitty a Beartic hug even though it was out cold and wouldn't be able to know anything she did right now or return the love she wanted to show for it. She kissed her Pokemon on the head and recalled into its Pokeball, praising it for its true grit and gorgeous appeal. She looked up at all the people giving her a standing ovation and cheering for her like they knew her since Hoenn.

Like they knew her…as well as Ash.

And remembering that name wiped the smile clean off of the girl's face.

She stared across at her old-time rival with green hair that was somehow slicked yet messy at the same time. He was wearing a formal tuxedo with purple lacing and a red rose in his ear. He looked across the way, shook his head in defeat and contempt, and recalled his Roserade. He flicked his hair upwards in mock disapproval. She once saw this as cool and charming, but she has grown to despise that hair flick; it put rather derogatory thoughts through her brain she never thought she would think.

Then, through and after it all, she couldn't help but snicker. Then the snicker turned into a giggle. Then the giggle turned into a laugh. Then the laugh turned into doubling over like she had a bad case of indigestion. All this pressure had become too much for the young girl, and having finally beat Drew here in Johto was a huge wave of pressure that finally receded.

And he wasn't the only one she beat on the big stage here on the Grand Festival. She also had successfully triumphed over two other rivals she had had yet to beat in the Johto region—Solidad and Harley.

The fact the girl with the veil struggled against Solidad was understandable. She had only faced her once before the Johto region and suffered a harsh and rather difficult defeat. She had then, in Johto, failed time after time after time again to beat Solidad. But when she found out what she was doing wrong, she instantly changed her ways and once again became the dominant coordinator she knew she could be. She learned that she had been misleading herself all throughout Johto. She thought she had lost the Kanto Grand Festival because her style was too much like…someone else. She somehow let herself be convinced she needed to change her style. However, when she was visiting in Sinnoh for the Wallace Cup, she remembered how her old style actually was a great style. She did this because she had one more special training session with someone she really cared about. There she found out why her old style was perfectly fine and that separating from her best friend was rather stupid. Because her heart was so close to his, that her style was actually perfect being so close to his.

Thinking about that boy made her freeze and forget about what was going on around her. But she forced it out of her mind and forced a smile.

_I can't think about him and ruin my day. I just made it to the finals of a Grand Festival for the first time in my life._

However…losing to Harley was inexplicable. Before her adventure in Johto he had only beaten her once while she had beaten him four times. Then she came to Johto and went oh-and-three against him. She was the better coordinator and she knew it. But she kept losing to him. Why? She only could come up with one reason. Her close friend wasn't with her to snap her out of Harley's shenanigans. She saw red every time she faced him, but the boy was always there to calm her down. But until their recent battle at the Grand Festival, she let him make her red with fury when she faced him, and her rage caused her to forgot about how to win a contest. However after the Wallace Cup the girl's had a rejuvenated sense of battle style, and once again faced him with a cool and carefree head like she used to. She wiped the floor with him like he was second rate.

And with that thought of the boy she became upset again, and this time she couldn't force a smile. She had to fight the tears threatening to come out.

_I can't look like a fool now._

Mr. Contesta walked up to her, smiled, and gave her hand a firm shake. He told her how proud he was of her and how much she's grown since he first saw her in Hoenn. He also told her about how much she has accomplished, and what a great fan base she bestowed for the Contest Committee, and blah blah blah…

This all went over the girl's head. She just wanted to get home and see if she could call and actually reach Ash this time. She hadn't heard from him in over 5 months and was starting to grow depressed. She was starting to lose the thrill of contests and the will to train. She just wanted to see him again.

The girl went into the changing rooms after her short interview (she purposely answered questions vaguely so she could escape the grasp of the media quicker) and changed back into her street clothes. She walked home from the stadium, parting the crowd as she exited and almost instantly pesky reporters with microphones started to bug her about her battle. She simply ignored them and pushed on through the mob.

However one reporter had known her since Hoenn, and asked her a question that made her stop in her tracks.

The reporter had asked her, "How does it feel to win against your top rival without the support of your close friend, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town?"

When she stopped in her tracks, everyone went quiet, not knowing how the last question had 'crossed the line' for this girl. After she heard the question, the girl was onto the verge of breaking down and letting loose tears. However she had been toughened by her training with Ash, and wouldn't let her character go right then and there. So she shrugged it off and held her gaze to the ground while she walked the rest of the way to the hotel. The crowd was absolutely stunned She had simply walked without so much as batting an eye in their direction for the last 30 minutes. And for what appeared to be a solid, innocent question, no one could fathom what produced such a reaction from the girl.

The paparazzi stopped and stared at her. They couldn't tell what, but something was compelling them not to chase her.

The girl went into the comfy hotel room once again. She remembered the days of sleeping in giant 8-bed rooms with all her friends. She would giggle at the thought that she could say she technically slept with Ash, but that giggle would quickly transform into a frown, and then eventually into tears. She hated the thought of being alone now, and she couldn't stand not having him there at night to tell her what she had done right and what she had done wrong in her most recent battle.

She pulled out her most important part of her coordinating journey—her special ribbon with Ash. It had the volume and size of a normal ribbon considering it was just half of one. It sported half of a beautiful, peculiar design. She had made sure it was well kept and in such pristine condition that it could be in a museum. She cherished the memento and never let it out of her sight. She carried it everywhere, and every time she experienced trouble, she would grasp onto it and not let it go. She didn't risk losing it. She would rather lose her real Johto ribbons.

Looking at it reminded her of Ash. And she had another thought of how stupid she was for leaving him. She wanted his smile. She wanted his touch. She wanted his comfort. She wanted his humor. She wanted his clumsiness. She wanted his energetic, rash behavior. She wanted his praise. Because to the girl, all that was worth more than a million Grand Festival Cups combined and then some.

And so this is why May Maple from Petalburg City once again cried for over three hours the night after her tremendous victory.

When May stopped her crying she noticed she had sub-consciously knocked over a few vases, as there were some shattered decorations on the floor. She also had picked up a few bruises along the way. Mostly on her knuckles, suggesting she had pounded a few things when she wasn't thinking. She looked at how the back of her hands were bleeding ever so slightly and were shouting in pain. She sighed and shook her head. This wasn't the first time she had gone crazy.

She picked up a broom and swept it up, knowing she would have to pay for the nice décor.

She noticed her eyes were throbbing with pain from the crying. She walked up to the mirror and saw that her eyes' refreshing blue aura was overwhelmed by her eyes' red veins wanting to burst out of their canals. Her eyes had bags, and her bags had bags. She was tired, wet, cold, dirty, and sad. She needed a shower.

So she turned the light on and looked at the clock. It read 01:32. This made her sigh as she stepped gingerly into the shower, testing the warmth. It was more or less how she liked it, as she wasn't too picky about her shower experience itself. As long as she was clean and fresh by the time she walked out.

May cleaned off her body and made sure to rub extra carefully around her new cuts to ensure infection never played a role in her near future. She then turned to the shampoo and hesitated, knowing she had two choices. She had her large bottle of lemon citrus scented shampoo, which she used on normal occasions. It more than sufficed, as she smelled exceptionally good with it. However she had a small vial of a cinnamon-vanilla scented shampoo, which she saved for fancy dinners and formal occasions. This was a special shampoo that had barely been used in the Johto region. She normally ran through bottles of it like it was nobody's business, but ever since she separated from the gang she lost her passion for it. The reason was because she only had worn it for someone special.

She wore it back then because Ash had once complimented her about how nice her hair smelled when she wore it one day when they were in town. She had a big crush on him back then, and made sure he noticed her as much as possible.

So she stared at the vial as water ran down her hair and her face. It dripped over her body, and she just stood suspended in time staring at the bottle. She had no more tears left in her eyes to give to the floor, so she just choked up upon the sight of it.

Eventually she shook her head and smiled as she put a small glob of it in her palm as she scrubbed her hair in it extra thoroughly to make sure the scent would linger around for at least a couple days. She then stepped confidently out of the shower and dried herself off. She took an extra 20 minutes to make sure her hair was absolute perfection.

She walked into her room and looked at the time.

02:45

She just sighed and shook her head. She crawled into her bed with renewed power and confidence and instantly fell into a blissful sleep.

Why?

Because while staring at that bottle, she had come up with a special plan for tomorrow that would finally take care of her loneliness.

And it didn't involve contests.


	2. Distraught Underneath

**I couldn't stop adding!**

**That's my excuse for the late arrival of this chapter. Hey, it's pretty good, right? The excuse I mean ;)**

**I like this chapter. Honestly, it was fun to right. I cloud your minds even more with this one, just fyi.**

* * *

><p>"Is everyone here?"<p>

"I think so!"

"Yeah everyone's here."

"WAIT! What about Iris?"

"Who cares? I'm getting hungry."

"SHUT UP ASH! This is important!"

"I was only kidding…."

"At least I have my sandals."

"Well why you two are arguing, I see one Nurse Joy over there…"

"Oh no you don't rock for brains!"

"OWW! Why always the ear Misty?"

"…Umm is this typical?"

"YES!"

"Pikachuuuu!"

People claim they've been to parties. Those people say their's was the greatest ever. Those people claim that they are allegedly the best at throwing a rockin' celebration that brings the city to its knees.

Those people obviously hadn't been to Ash Ketchum's reunion party. Everyone who Ketchum had met on his journey has converged on one technologically advanced city for the most wonderful gathering most people would ever see. These revelers were here for games, for festivities, for food, for girls. Okay so the last part was just for Brock, but he had enough love going around for the entire gang.

Why the festivities?

It wasn't like it was a special holiday. It was smack dab in the middle of autumn, in a musty day, where it was moderately dry, decently chilly, quite a bit windy, and partly cloudy. Gray splashed across the sky in a way that almost seemed to be trolling the inhabitants of the region. The color was dark enough to threaten rain, but gray enough to leave the possibility of rain up in the air. The air was was light enough to feel safe to not prepare yourself, but dense enough to make you second-guess every decision. So everyone brought plenty of rain gear, since ya know. Obviously the one day you forget to protect yourself, it will rain.

But this day was special for Ash. Because of everyone's friendliness with the boy from Pallet, it was special for them as well, but Ash especially. Why? It was a simple answer:

It was the day Ash first set foot on a musty dirt road to begin his epic journey.

Ash organized the ENTIRE thing. It was one of those miraculous moments where he actually behaved as mature as an adult. He sent the invitations and followed up with every single one of them; some on multiple occasions, just to make sure they were coming. He arranged for the decorations to be placed up perfectly ahead of time by finding the best companies and the best materials. He made sure not one piece of confetti was out of place. He found every contact he didn't currently have, even when he had to dig deep to find some tough ones like Morrison. He picked out the gathering location after long nights of thorough research. He picked a place with plenty of room, but not so much room that he would be throwing away Poke on unused rented room; a place luxurious enough to accommodate even the pickiest of individuals, yet one that would compel anyone to go outside. The boy from Pallet even went so far as to make sure everyone knew what weather was predicted. And to top it all off, he set up everyone's rooms exactly how he knows each individual person would like it.

"Alright I'm here, I'm here!"

"Axew!"

"Finally Iris! Alright Brock we're…Ah rotten Tomato Berries! Max, can you be so kind as to separate him from Nurse Joy please? . . . Max? Whe-"

"-Already took care of it."

"OW OW OW! LET. GO. OF. THE. EAR!"

"Fine."

Of the 33 guests invited, most had arrived. Tyson courteously and apologetically turned down the invitation, saying Meowth was going through one of its "funk phases" and refused to move from its current training spot in Hoenn.

The other lone person who hadn't shown up was May. She had the Johto Grand Festival to take care of. After watching her superb victory earlier, Ash made sure time was arranged to watch her compete in the semifinals. He and the 31 guests had watched her match today. The unanimous cheer that erupted after her stunning victory from the nice hotel in Nimbasa City probably disturbed all the nearby luxury resorts.

The place was expensive to rent out, and even with 34 people chipping in (May and Tyson still sent some Poke with their warmest regards to make up for their absence) they didn't quite have enough. Not by a long shot. So when Ash heard that 3 mysterious and anonymous donors had given up quite the shiny coin to meet ends with the remaining tens of thousands of Poke they were missing, one can imagine how surprised he was. When he investigated further, attempting to figure out whom he had to thank for such a gracious gift, he couldn't figure much out of the hotel manager…just that the trio was in trench coats and dark shades. Ash wasn't sure if that was because of a privacy policy, or because that's literally all the manager knew.

Presently, Brock was busy getting behind the photo booth to set up a timer for the group photo.

Ash looked around and smiled. He was so happy, seeing everyone who showed up. He had thought his party would be a bust, that no one really cared much about him. Clearer he wasn't father from the truth.

His first invitations were to his old and new traveling partners: Misty, Brock, Tracey, Max, May, Dawn, Cilan, and Iris.

After some thought, he decided it would be most polite to send the next wave to his closest adult connections: Delia Ketchum, Professor Oak, Professor Birch, Professor Juniper, and Looker (who still went by Looker, and still never said his real name. He also mentioned to be prepared for him to bolt at any moment. Understandable, he IS part of the International Police).

The next wave was to his biggest rivals, because everyone knows Ash and his off-field attitude to his competition: Gary, Ritchie, Morrison, Barry, Paul and his brother Reggie, Bianca, and Stephan.

And after long consideration, he thought, "_What the heck, why not?_" and also invited the gym leaders he had kept in touch with and was closest to: Erika, Whitney, Jasmine, Pryce, Watson, Flannery, Norman of course (and his wife Caroline), Winona, Candice, Volkner, and most recently, Elesa. Okay that was a lot of leaders. But it made for an entertaining battle tournament.

Luckily for Ash not one person left him out to dry.

Surprisingly, they were also graced with the presence of the Marina Group. The group was arriving to perform in Nimbasa in the coming month, and since Ash knew them well he went ahead and invited them over. Lizabeth instantly brightened upon hearing from her favorite companion she met outside of her family. Well, next to Brock. She even jumped out of her Group's moving caravan-RV hybrid to sprint to Ash's hotel. Her family brought up the rear shortly after her explosive entrance to the hotel lobby.

The family checked in. As soon as Lizabeth saw Brock, she dropped everything she was doing and ran over to hug him. Well, maybe Brock initiated the embrace. You can never tell with him.

Lizabeth's family laughed and found the adults pretty quickly. Ash had this assumption that "older people" had a "sixth sense" for finding each other.

And thus, the Marina Group had joined the party.

It was probably the most fun everyone attending had all year. There was something for everyone - an exercise gym, a battlefield, a sports arena, a bowling alley. However these commodities were only used at night and dawn. During the day, everyone mingled, joked, laughed, cried, and embraced outside in gathering places. The event lasts a week, so it is okay that it takes a while to do everything. And it is also fitting because the Driftveil Bridge was under heavy repair at the moment—the main reason Ash was throwing the party at the present time.

Each day had a different activity planned. Tomorrow was the battle tournament, which pretty much everyone was psyched about. Even Nurse Joy was entering. It was going to be an exciting and fun time for everyone.

However each activity wasn't always so serious. Ash made sure each day's plan was another fun curveball that was extraordinarily different than the one the day before. And it had really paid off so far. Heck, there was a pie-throwing contest yesterday. Except it wasn't your typical pie-throwing contest. Because Ash organized it, the event had to be the most exhilarating and intense thing ever done with dough-crusted fruit puree. So the targets ended up becoming the competitors. Even Pokemon became involved, which really shook things up. Toward the end, Norman somehow got himself involved from the sidelines where all the adults hung out and laughed, and started owning everyone. So naturally everyone started targeting him. It was the most fun Norman had since…well since his gym battle with Ash. The Gym Leader ended up with a cherry coat, a blueberry puree face, grape hair, and mixed fruit pants. Yeah. Fun times.

Even though Ash had stressed so much about preparations, he had no intention of continuing those nervous feelings. He came to relax, and even had a Snorlax Yawn Spa set up just to alleviate him of some of his more stressful moments. Of course the Snorlax was his own pride and joy.

"Alright, everyone ready? "

"YEAH!"

Brock clicked a few buttons behind the giant camera currently perched atop a sturdy tripod.

"One…"

Brock sprinted from behind the camera screen into his position.

Ash continued on Brock's initiative.

"Two…"

Finally everyone smiled and shouted the last word,

"THREE!"

Blinding lights flashed on periodic and systematic times and everyone smiled for the memento this was sure to be. When it was clear the camera was done taking pictures, they cheered. And a moment of peace followed.

Then Brock did something unexpected. He nonchalantly whistled while looking to the right and poured a cup of burning hot tea on Lizabeth's foot. She yelped in pain and started bounding around. Unfortunately, she didn't have room to bounce, so she ended up knocking over Candice and Tracey. They fell over and bumped into Gary and Stephan. The small group of victims all instantly blamed each other, and eventually started minor scuffles. This caused backfire onto other people, and before you know it there was a group of young people in petty arguments and minor hand fights, makeshift wrestling matches, and word stand-offs. Some were busy redoing their wet hair, some were frantically trying to readjust themselves, some trying to get out from under the dogpiles. All the while the adults just laughed and shook their heads.

Then the camera flashed again.

Everyone stopped and blinked a couple of times. They stared at the camera lens. Then everything clicked in their brains and the internal gears started turning. They all slowly turned their head to a certain Pokemon Doctor-in-training. They all yelled,

"BROCKKKKKK!"

"Oh look at the time, gotta go make dinnerrrrRRRRRRRR!"

He was already sprinting away from a mob of infuriated teenagers at the end of his sentence.

The two that stayed behind were Ash and Cilan. Ash because he knew Brock would pull some nutball move like this, and personally actually was pretty intrigued and excited to see how a goofy picture came out. Cilan because he had dinner to make with Brock later on, and wanted to be on his good side, since he was going to be in close quarters with him for a good period of time.

Cilan sighed and said, "Well…looks like I'M gonna have to go make the preparations while Brock calms down that crowd."

The adults laughed and went back to the bar to enjoy a nice, relaxing conversation with some ice cold glasses of various non-alcoholic bar drinks (it was still early in the evening, and no one was a heavy drinker in the group).

Ash meanwhile decided to go inside and peak on the news to see how a certain coordinator was doing.

"Such a dazzling party!"

Elesa was the gym leader at the local Nimbasa Gym. Ash had recently beaten her and earned the Bolt Badge. She didn't tell anyone this, but he was the first person in over 10 weeks to have beaten her. There was that one person…Trip?...he challenged her not too long before Ash. He came pretty close – even backing her into a 1v3 situation. However Tynamo more than pulled through for her, beating his Servine, Vanillite, and Timburr whilst barely enduring one scratch

When she received the invitation from Ash, she was ecstatic.

Even though she was older than Ash, and through the fact they just met, she still saw him as one of her closest friends. Not many people taught her something in the middle of a battle. Plus the conversations she has had with him during the party made them all the closer. She was so busy nowadays, she was happy to finally get away from it all – the paparazzi, the modeling industry, the gym, everything. She had a week to relax.

Meeting all the gym leaders from different nations was a true treat in her eyes. It was nice learning how other gym leaders ran their gym. She was also looking forward to the battle tournament. She couldn't wait to see how she faired against other gym leaders.

She found it funny Ash had befriended more female leaders than male leaders. She could see why – his caring attitude would charm any girl. Not like a crush, just a charm. Although she did understand how much a girl would like the kind of boy Ash is.

Suddenly a glass of lemonade popped up in front of her. She flinched and reeled for a second before looking to the right and seeing Flannery smiling, basically in her face with the drink. Elesa, stunned by the blunt proximity, shrieked and backed off. While backing up she tripped over a root and fell flat on her back. Into mud.

Flannery looked down for a second, a little stunned as to why Elesa did such an ungraceful and dramatic movement in reaction to her kind gesture. Elesa looked at herself for a second and noticed she was caked in mud.

Elesa paused. Flannery was scared she might have just ruined a shot at a new friendship.

The Electric Leader stared at herself for a moment.

"My favorite shirt…"

_Oh no! _Flannery backed up a bit.

Elesa looked from arm to arm.

"I just bought this…for 1K Poke…off of last month's money…"

Flannery stuttered, "I…I-I-I-I-…..I'm…"

She looked up at Flannery.

"This was my favorite shirt…and I ruined it off of duty…oh what will the boss say about this…"

Flannery's eyes widened with terror.

"Look Elesa I'm sooo soo sooooo sorry! I didn't know…"

Elesa got up and started moving toward Flannery. Step…by step…by step. She moved closer, appearing to be fuming about what just happened. Then she did something unexpected.

She doubled over and started laughing hysterically. She slapped her knee and just pointed at Flannery, tears in her eyes. Flannery stood there for a second, shocked. She didn't know what to say or do.

Elesa went up to the Lavaridge native and gave her a hard pound to the back.

"GOTCHA! You thought I was mad, huh?"

Flannery went dumb. "Derrr…uhhhh…"

Elesa smiled and spoke, "To be honest, it's nice to be dirty."

Flannery was still shocked. "Gahh, gerrr, uhhh…"

The Nimbasa leader chuckled. "I was just joking ya know? I don't have much ability to be so drastic during the day."

Flannery straightened enough to speak, "What?"

"You're aware of the fact I'm a model right?"

"Yeah…"

"Guess how often I get to feel the cool feeling of mud."

"…Once a month?"

"If I'm lucky."

Flannery gasped and exclaimed, "But I end up getting dirt all over me every day!" She then added spitefully under her breath "Especially since people love using Ground attacks on Fire type."

Elesa laughed. "Embrace those moments! I don't get to experience them." She held out her hand and winked at her new friend.

Flannery smiled and shook it. "This doesn't mean I'll go easy on you in the tournament."

Elesa feigned disappointment by making a WAY over exaggerated finger snap, "Ahhh darn it! Guess we can't be friends now. Darn."

Flannery laughed. "So ermm…lemonade?"

Elesa smiled. "Yeah."

She took the cup and went inside to take a shower in her room.

She opened the door and closed it behind her with the familiar clicking sound a card key door makes in a hotel. She scanned the room and saw how well Ash knew her already. Her room was outfitted with technology and the latest appliances. You could hole up in her room for a year and not be bored. But there wasn't one thing suggesting a connection to being a gym leader or a model. It was also very contemporary, but lacked the flashy and fancy lights that her gym had. She liked it. The neon lights made her feel stressed.

She took a quick shower to clean herself off. She threw her outfit in the washing machine and changed into her relaxation clothes. They were actually from her latest catwalk where she met Ash. She found it ironic they were also the same clothes she was wearing when she formally met him.

_Well, if getting uncomfortably close to him to get a close look at his Pikachu counts as formally._

She giggled at the thought and walked out the door.

She was walking down the hall when she saw a TV set to the Contest Channel. She remembered hearing about one of Ash's former companions who couldn't make it due to her participation in the Johto Grand Festival. Between this, and her innate curiosity and interest in contests (since they hadn't been introduced in Unova yet), she couldn't help but pay attention.

Sure enough a girl named May was on the front lines.

_THAT'S HER NAME! MAY!_

The girl with headphones sat down on the couch in the waiting room for some restaurant next to her. She didn't care to look at the sign stating the name of it, which seemed pointless. She was too absorbed by the TV anyway.

A reporter's voice spoke to her in HD:

_Man I love how technologically advanced Nimbasa City is._

"…And that's how Skitty triumphed over Roserade. Came right down to the wire. I have never seen such an intense Quarterfinals! Whadya say Jet?"

A woman with silver hair that looked like an airplane wing…

_Now how did she pull that style off? I mean I've done it once but it took forever for me to get my facial features to accommodate it._

…and a blue business suit showed up on cam. She responded cheerfully, "Couldn't agree more! Especially considering these are the same rivals who have duked it out since they began back in Hoenn."

Elesa mused to herself, "Well that makes sense. I've heard stories about her rivalry with Draw."

Jet continued, "Drew is such an aspiring young coordinator who had been the favorite this contest. But somehow he lost to May, whom no one thought should even be in this Grand Festival!"

_Oh that's his name. Drew._

While the first commentator continued, a voice perked up next to Elesa.

"Yeah. The bane of our existence."

Elesa looked over to see Dawn walking up to her, smiling.

"Ah hi there! You're Dawn correct? I've heard so much about you from Ash and Brock."

Dawn giggled. "Yeah. I get told that a lot."

Elesa chuckled. "You interested in May too?"

Dawn's eyes lit up like a hearth fire. "AM I EVER! She is like, my IDOL!" She laughed at herself. Elesa smiled and closed her eyes, a cute gesture that signifies content.

They turned their attention back to the TV.

Jet was continuing the story on May. "…Now one thing that has always intrigued me is her personal life. She used to hate Pokemon!"

The other commentator (apparently names Chandler…it said so on the underbar) seemed ecstatic about responding to this. "I couldn't agree more Jet. The Pokemon Trainer that has made a name for himself in 4 different regions, Ash Ketchum, really trained her to where she is at the moment. Her style is basically the exact same as his. The only other trainers I have seen make as a much of an impact on the contest stage is the Sootopolis duo, Wallace and Juan!"

Jet responded, "Ah yes! Ash has even entered two contests in his life. He won one of them, tying with May, and the second he ended up losing. However don't take that loss for granted! He only used a Buizel and made it through 2 rounds! And he lost to a Lanturn, which had a clear advantage, and he still almost beat it! I wonder if Buizel had learned Ice Punch by then if Ash would have won."

Chandler had fire red hair, and was wearing a red tuxedo, but you could only see the neck of his attire due to the camera angel and zoom. "Ah yes. I'm surprised the two never ended up a couple considering all the time they had together."

Jet seemed to light up at the talk of relationship gossip. "So true! However the main topic coming up after the break is this relationship she has with Drew! She seems to have been hanging around with him more. And he hasn't stopped with the incoming flurry of flowers either! So I will refrain from swallowing up the TV's time, and let the prepared video show." The camera zoomed out form Jet and Chandler.

The screen flashed pictures of Drew and May sitting and laughing on a park bench, focusing on the looks on their faces. Next, it showed the unmistakable smiles they had in the middle of a scrimmage match outside the Grand Festival arena in Olivine. It continued on showing pictures of them walking through Blackthorn City. It was a slideshow of everything May and Drew, and the amazing times they appeared to be having. A pink background surrounded the standstill photos of May and Drew, the coordinators oblivious to the fact they were being watched, and it showed. It seemed like they were genuinely having fun. It lasted for 2ish minutes.

After a blur dissolve transition, the screen flashed to multiple, quick-changing clips of Drew giving May a rose and May blushing at it. The clips were from Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto. They were mostly from the locker room, the scene behind them full of the nervous and chatting competition. Yet May and Drew appeared to be in their own world all the same. There was an interview of Drew playing as audio in the background. "What do I think of her? She's a beautiful girl. She's unpredictable. You never know what she might do. Whether she will go defend left or attack right…whether she will use a new move or a new combination…whether she will split a double battle into two one on one's or not…whether she will use lemon scent in her hair or leave it alone…She's a beautiful girl, certainly. She's a beautiful girl." That last line echoed and reverberated throughout the video. The romantic music in the background ended and one last picture of Drew and May's faces really close appeared, and the cam slowly zoomed in on the center. Then a line appeared on screen:

It said: "Contest Rivals to Potential Couple?"

Elesa and Dawn thought it was cute when suddenly they heard a large crash down the hall.

At first Elesa thought nothing of it, yet something egged her to get up and rush down the hall and see what happened. Dawn for some reason followed suit behind her – probably out of curiosity. She found herself using her ears to lead her to where the sound came from. She made her mind echo the crashing sound in her head, trying to decipher where it came from when it happened.

She found herself in front of the door to the club lounge. She stared at the door, an eerie and ominous silence behind it. She looked behind her and saw an equally worried Dawn behind her. Her eyes were twitching and clouded with anxiety. Elesa realized that hers probably looked much the same.

She opened the door, bracing for what might be behind it.

The lemon-haired girl found Ash, frozen like a statue, in a position like he had just thrown something. His chest was heaving, and he was breathing like he just ran the marathon. Sweat had formed on his brow, and his eyes were crossed and flushed with red and yellow like an angry bull. Elesa gasped and followed Ash's hard gaze forward. She found herself looking at a TV.

An obliterated TV with a shattered drinking glass implanted in it.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah. Not sure what to make of that huh?<strong>

**You can't tell where I'm going with this, huh? Well good news! You learn absolutely nothing new about Ash next chapter since I will switch over to May's PoV from this basic area! Yay! More mind-clouding!**

**Keep an eye on Elesa and Dawn throughout this short story. Hint hint.**

**Quick Note - I received the idea of the "Pokemon Contest Couple to Be?" blahblha whatever form LoveAndHeartbreak's video on YouTube. Go check him/her out (don't remember gender ^^')**

**Betcha didn't expect a party, huh? Yeah Neither did I. Honestly, I don't know what goes through my brain when I come up with these stories L-O-L Rofalcoptah-Lawl-OhEmEfGe-BarbIckCue-Pohwn-Sawwce**

**R&R, por favor. "Please" for you Spanish illeterates out there.**

**-Px**


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